It is well known that a conventional mechanical meter, such as a watt-hour meter, is equipped with a wheel assembly 10, as shown in FIG. 1. This wheel assembly 10 comprises five wheels 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19, and a series of pinion wheels 21. The first wheel 11 is rotated by a driving means, such as a saw-toothed wheel and cam assembly (not shown), which is drived accordingly as the consumption of the measuring object, such as electric energy, increases. The second to the fifth wheels 13, 15, 17 and 19 can be driven consequently by rotating the first wheel 11 and respectively represent a number of units, tens, hundreds, and thousands by means of the digits from 0 to 9 marked on each circumferential surface thereof. Such digits from 0 to 9 are marked on the circumferential surface of each wheel 11, 13, 15, 17 or 19 in circumferentially spaced-apart relationship. A series of pinion wheels 21 which are engaged with engaging means of each wheel 11, 13, 15, 17 or 19 transmit a driving torque due to rotating the first wheel 11 to the second to fifth wheels 13, 15, 17, and 19. Thus, when the first wheel 11 is rotated, the second to fifth wheels 13, 15, 17 and 19 are driven in due sequence according to the order of decimals.
However, the meter of this mechanical type has a disadvantage that in order to perceive the amount of consumption of the measuring object such as electric energy, the meterman must directly read the counting number represented by the digits on the circumferential surface of the wheels with his house-to-house visiting.
Recently, a public communication network, such as a telephone line or the like, has been widely utilized in various fields in view of the development of modern computer industries. For example, there has been demanded the remote inspection of the meter to inspect the counting number of the meter in a remote inspection center by means of making use of such public communication network without door-to-door visiting of a meterman. To satisfy such a demand, the meters for remote inspection in recent years have various incidental function circuits and expensive interface devices as the occasion demands. This results not only in doubling the difficulty of the remote inspection system design, but also in increasing its production cost. Consequently, it is difficult for such meters for remote inspection based on the prior art to put to practical use remotely inspecting the counting number of the meter.